Remnant of the Vacant
by The Eternal Dream
Summary: Time travel. Sounds like fun, right? No. No it's not. Cloud was determined to get back home, the past be damned, but with Aerith haunting his every step it didn't look like that would be happening any time soon. No pairings.
1. Chapter 1: Road to Paradise

Summary: Time travel. Sounds like fun, right? No. No it's not. Cloud was determined to get back home, the past be damned, but with Aerith haunting his every step it didn't look like that'd be happening any time soon. No pairings.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. This work has not been endorsed by Square Enix or any of the others holding copyright or license to the Final Fantasy games, movies, and products. No connection is implied or should be inferred. Other names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author receives no financial gain from its production or distribution.

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**Remnant of the Vacant**_  
Chapter 1: Road to Paradise_

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"No way in _hell_!"

"_Yes_, Cloud. This is the only way that you can be happy!"

"No it's not! I'm very happy the way I am right now, thank you very much!"

This was not how Cloud's day was supposed to go. He was supposed to a having a relaxing day filled with slaughtering monsters. It was going to be _fun_. But then, all of a sudden, he found himself standing in the Promised Land, surrounded by fields of flowers.

Naturally, the first thing he'd done was to freak out, thinking that he'd somehow crashed his bike and killed himself. It'd taken Aerith a few minutes to calm him and convince him that no, wasn't dead and yes, he could get back out of the Lifestream just fine. Then she'd explained why she'd brought him there and everything had gone to hell.

"I'm telling you, Aerith, I'm not going to go back to the past!"

"But you've never forgiven yourself, Cloud! Please, you need this so that you can finally have peace," Aerith pleaded.

Cloud shook his head violently, denying this. "I'm _fine_, really! I'm happy with my life now. I don't _want_ it to change!"

He was starting to get desperate. He recognized that dangerous glint in her eyes; it was the stubborn glint that said that she was going to do what she thought was best, regardless of whether or not he agreed. Which was _not_ a good thing.

"What about the Planet?" the blond haired man said, casting around for any sort of an excuse. "Wouldn't sending me into the past undo everything that we've done and put the Planet in danger again?"

"The Planet will be creating a pocket dimension just for this," Aerith replied, waving off his concerns. "Your world, the real world, will be completely unaffected by anything you change or do. This means that you'll be able to fix things to your hearts content and eventually forgive yourself!"

Oh Gaia, this was not going well. "I don't _want_ to fix things!" Cloud protested for what felt like the hundredth time. "I'm sick and tired of chasing Sephiroth to the ends of the Planet and being the fucking world savior. And—and— How would I fix things anyway? I was weak and scrawny when I was fourteen!"

"Then we'll send you in your current body," Aerith retorted calmly.

"I can't do much without First Tsurugi—"

"Then we'll send it too."

Shit. "My friends will freak out if I'm gone—"

"No time will pass here while you're in the past."

Cloud's mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out. He was quickly running out of excuses to use.

"...Fenrir?"

"That too."

Dammit. "...I don't want to go," Cloud repeated. "Can't you just leave well enough alone, Aerith? I'd rather let the past lie."

For a moment Aerith's expression softened. But the moment passed as quickly as it'd come and she squared her shoulders, once again determined. Cloud's own shoulders slumped. He knew that there was no way that he was going to get out of this now.

But that didn't mean that he was going to along with it without a fight.

"I'm sorry, Cloud," Aerith said softly. "But I feel that this is what's best for you. That this will help you to heal."

"No, wait! Aerith—!"

Too late. The world around him exploded into white as the Promised Land melted away before his very eyes. Cloud tensed, an angry snarl on his face—

—And then found himself riding his motorcycle through the wasteland around Edge, just like he'd been before Aerith had pulled him into the Lifestream to talk to him. He relaxed imperceptibly, but had to admit that he was confused. Had something gone wrong? Had Aerith screwed up? Or had that whole thing just been a hallucination?

A small, nearly hysterical smile tugged at the corners of Cloud's mouth. Thank Gaia that hadn't worked. He couldn't even begin to imagine what would have happened had he actually gone into the _past_, back when Midgar was still standing, Shinra was all-powerful, and Sephiroth and _Hojo_ were alive. The very thought made him shudder.

Cloud relaxed into Fenrir's seat and felt the familiar roar of the motorcycle reverberate in his bones. _Here_ was exactly where he wanted to be. Driving Fenrir and using First Tsurugi to kill any monsters that came along. He was content.

The swordsman drove along like this for several hours. He was on a direct path towards Edge, now eager to get back to Seventh Heaven, where—hopefully—Aerith wouldn't be able to get to him. The sun was high in the sky by the time the Midgar ruins came into view. He should have been almost uncomfortably hot, but instead he felt a cold tendril of fear tightening around his chest. It took him a moment to figure out why.

Those weren't the Midgar ruins. That was the city of Midgar itself, untouched.

_Shit_.

Almost instantly Cloud tried to do and about-face and drive away, but to his confusion he found that Fenrir wasn't responding. Shocked, he instead attempted to brake, but there was still no change. He even tried completely letting go of the handlebars and found that Fenrir didn't change its course at all.

As desperation began to leak into him—this was _not_ happening to him!—Cloud turned towards his last resort: Jumping off his bike. Dangerous, perhaps, but in his mind it was a better option then going into Midgar. It didn't work out, of course, because at that moment all of his muscles seized up, effectively leaving him paralyzed.

"I'm sorry Cloud."

Cloud's eyes widened in shock. Aerith was sitting on the front of Fenrir, staring at him with sad eyes. She was controlling Fenrir, the blond quickly realized. She was making sure he went into Midgar!

"Let me go," Cloud demanded angrily.

"No."

Aerith looked more stubborn and determined than he'd ever seen her. Suddenly Cloud had a sinking feeling that getting out of this wasn't going to be so easy. Aerith certainly didn't look as though she'd be giving up on her "quest" any time soon.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Cloud looked at his old friend with weary eyes. "What're you doing here, Aeris?"

"I'm going to make sure that you go through with this and don't try to leave Shinra," she said.

Cloud wondered what horrible atrocities he must have committed in a past life in order to deserve this. Aerith just smiled.

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Aerith directed Cloud's bike into Midgar and up onto the upper plate. It was a rather interesting experience to be back in the city, Cloud had to admit. It brought back all sorts of memories of his time with Shinra and AVALANCHE. He'd forgotten the horrible squalor the people under the plate lived in and just how many people lived in the whole city. How many of them had died in the Meteor Event?

It also made him cough like nothing else. Gaia, he'd forgotten just how polluted Midgar had been.

Eventually Fenrir pulled to a stop in front of a building that Cloud clearly recognized as the Shinra Military Headquarters. It was built right next to Shinra Tower and while only a few floors tall, it was sprawling and spread over several city blocks. As its name suggested, it was Shinra's military building and housed all military members, from cadets to generals.

Generals.

General Sephiroth.

Cloud groaned. Great; _that_ was exactly what he wanted to be reminded of. Dealing with an insane Sephiroth was odd enough of an experience, but dealing with a perfectly sane and rational one was going to be downright bizarre.

"Come on, Cloud," Aerith said cheerfully. "Let's go inside! You need to register for Shinra's military program."

"Like hell I do," Cloud snapped, but despite his words he got off Fenrir. He had little doubt that if he didn't Aerith would _make_ him go and it would hurt. "Speaking of which," he said suddenly, "How is it that you could control Fenrir?"

"This is a pocket dimension, remember?" Aerith replied with a smile. "Gaia controls _everything_ here."

"Wonderful," Cloud grumbled.

The lobby of the Military Headquarters was a simple, if rather large, room. Receptionist counters lined the back walls and the rest of the space was filled with various waiting chairs. Today however, the room was also packed with people—mostly young boys. It was registration day, Cloud realized dejectedly.

"Get in line, kid," a nearby soldier growled.

Cloud shot him a glare even as he followed the instructions. Did he _look_ like a kid? He was twenty five for Gaia's sake!

After waiting for nearly an hour, Cloud finally reached the front of the registration line. He'd been given his registration forms while waiting and had long since filled them out—and had quite a bit of fun doing so too. Aerith may have been making him do this, but that didn't mean that he couldn't put his age down as -213 and his fighting history as "world savior". In fact, everything on the forms was an odd mixture of fact and fiction that amused him quite a bit.

Aerith, Cloud had noticed while waiting, was invisible to everyone but him. She was also able to move through people and objects, like a spirit. The blond had spent a good twenty minutes amusing himself by passing his hand back and forth through her insubstantial shoulder and watching the annoyed faces she made. It also made everyone else around Cloud stare at him like he was insane, which only gave him further entertainment.

"Sir," the woman behind the desk said, pulling Cloud's attention away from Aerith. The woman looked two parts annoyed and concerned. "Are you alright?"

Cloud resisted the urge to smile brightly while saying, "Oh yes, I've been draw into the past, where I don't want to be, by an overprotective ghost, who won't leave me alone, to join a company that I helped to destroy four years ago! I'm just fucking _peachy!_" Despite how much fun terrorizing receptionists could be, he wasn't in the mood to cause a scene.

Instead he gave her a tight smile. "Fine, ma'am. Here are the papers."

The woman nodded slowly as she accepted the papers. Cloud tried to widen his smile, to appear friendlier, but she only looked warier, so instead he dropped the smile and glared at her.

She "eeped" fearfully and quickly handed him a pass. "Here you go, sir!" she said, her words rushed. "Please report to the third floor, where your registration process will be completed."

Cloud nodded and stalked over to the elevator, ignoring Aerith as she giggled quietly and bounced after him.

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That night Cloud lay on the top of a bunk bed, staring up at the ceiling. After registration he'd been given his uniform, schedule, rooming assignment, and then told to settle in. The next morning they'd have orientation and then classes would begin.

In other words, it'd been boring. Cloud _could_ have been out having fun, riding through the countryside, and killing monsters. You know, normal stuff. Instead, he was stuck here, inside of a building that should have been destroyed years ago.

But not for long.

Gleefully, Cloud glanced around the room to make sure that all of his squad mates were asleep. Aerith had gone back to the Lifestream a few hours ago, apparently even more bored than Cloud was. Now, without her hovering around, he had a chance to sneak out of Shinra.

Cloud leapt off his bed and landed silently in a crouch on the floor. After a second quick check that everyone was asleep, he eased open the door and slipped outside. Once the door had closed behind him, Cloud ran for it. He sped full tilt down the hallway, skidding around corners at high speed. It was only thanks to his experience—and, he grudgingly admitted, Hojo's experimentation—that his feet made no sound as he ran.

Finally, several halls and stairwells later, Cloud saw it: The front door. He was so close he could almost taste it. Grinning widely, he leapt towards the doors—

—And smacked right into an invisible wall.

Cloud lay on the floor for several long moments, wondering what had happened. The moment he saw Aerith's smiling face lean over him however, it became perfectly clear. With a groan, the blond pushed himself up.

"...What the hell?"

That wasn't Aerith's voice. Surprised, Cloud's head jerked up. There was a brown haired man wearing a red trench coat standing in the middle of the lobby, staring at Cloud. The swordsman winced and pulled himself to his feet.

"Uh, sorry about that," he muttered. Aerith giggled, so he shot her a glare. "Shut up!"

"Excuse me?"

Now the man looked even more taken aback. "Not you," Cloud snapped.

"I told you that you couldn't leave," Aerith said. Her already large smiled had widened. She was enjoying this far too much.

"I _don't_ want to be here!" Cloud growled. It felt like that was becoming his motto.

When Aerith just laughed, Cloud threw up his hands in annoyance and stalked back towards the stairwell. The brown haired man was left standing in the middle of the room, thoroughly confused.

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Genesis Rhapsodos was a rather orderly person, if he did say so himself. He was used to patterns and schedules; things that he could easily predict. One would think that this would mean that he'd hated surprises, but this was far from the truth. Puzzles fascinated Genesis. He loved to figure things out, to _find_ patterns where none seemed to exist. The world was orderly, he thought. One simply had to find the order.

And so it was that whenever Genesis was surprised by something out of the ordinary, he was inexplicably drawn to it. An itching urge to figure out whatever was puzzling him would rise up and he wouldn't be able to rest until he'd done so.

This blond cadet was one such puzzle, Genesis thought. He'd been leaving the Military Headquarters one night when he'd come across the strangest sight: a man running at full speed towards the doors. At first Genesis had thought that he was some sort of an insurgent, there to cause trouble, but then the man had run smack into the doors and collapsed onto the floor.

And that wasn't even the worst of it. After the blond had gotten up, he'd proceeded to yell at the air, saying things such as, "I don't want to be here", before walking off without another word.

At first Genesis had been almost positive that the man was insane. After all, he'd obviously been hallucinating.

However, as Genesis stood in a dark corner of the room that was being used for cadet orientation, he suddenly found himself intrigued. The moment the blond man had walked into the room, Genesis had noticed him. The blond walked with the grace of a warrior—or a SOLDIER. But he was only a cadet, and a mentally unbalanced one at that.

Now Genesis had to wonder if there was something more to this odd blond haired man. With narrowed eyes, he decided that he was going to find out.

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"No."

It was amazing how a single word could bring dead silence upon an entire room. Or rather, how it could cause such shock that everyone was left gaping at him, lost for words.

Cloud supposed it wasn't everyday that that a brand new cadet said "no" to a superior officer's face—which had grown beet red in a surprisingly short amount of time, he noticed with no small amount of amusement—but that was the entire point. The blond figured that if Aerith wouldn't let him leave, then his best choice was to get kicked out instead.

"_Strife_!" the officer roared. All around them the other cadets flinched and shrunk back. Cloud just smirked.

It was their first class of the day: A simple gym class that would be used for basic training. They'd been told to start out with some stretches, but Cloud had only stood there, silently refusing to do anything. Their SOLDIER instructor had noticed almost instantly and came stalking over, demanding that Cloud get to work.

And now he was blowing a gasket over Cloud's blatant refusal to do so.

"We don't accept fucking insubordination!" the 2nd-class SOLDIER snapped. "Drop and give me 50 right now!"

Cloud gave the man a flat stare. "No," he repeated calmly.

The man's nostrils flared. He clearly wasn't used to such disrespect, especially from a "cadet" like Cloud. Enraged, his hand snapped out to grab Cloud by the back of his collar, but the blond's instincts reacted faster than him and in an instant the SOLDIER was sent flying into a wall.

Cloud blinked twice. "...Oops." Out in the wild such reactions where a good thing. Here...Not so much. He shrugged. Oh well; all the better to get himself kicked out.

Aerith smacked him over the head.

"What was that for?" Cloud growled lowly while glaring at the girl.

Aerith scowled at him. "You're trying to _not_ attract attention, remember?" she said. "That means no attacking your trainers!"

Cloud opened his mouth, a retort on the tip of his tongue, when he noticed that the rest of the cadets were giving him wide-eyed, terrified looks. He supposed knocking out a SOLIDER—was the man unconscious? Yep, definitely. Hopefully he didn't get a concussion...—and talking to oneself was enough to warrant that. He leveled an angry glare on all of them and they quickly looked away.

Still scowling viciously, Cloud turned on his heel and stalked from the room.

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A/N: I've been a fanfic author for a number of years now, but I'm writing this story under a different penname because I'd like to see how it stands on its own. I suppose that it's possible for someone to recognize me, because I've been told that I have a very distinctive writing style, but, frankly, I don't care.

This story is actually relatively rushed because I'm writing it more for fun and humor than anything else. That isn't to say that it won't have a plot however, or that I don't take the time to iron out as many little mistakes as I can. More so, it just doesn't...flow as well as the rest of my writing. Or at least I feel so.

Cloud _will_ be OOC, because he'll be partially insane/crazy/loopy/cracked/cuckoo/ nutty/not all there in the head/however the hell you'd like to say it. He might grow a bit more serious as time goes on. He might not. We'll have to see where the story takes him. Also, don't think that I'm picking on Aerith or time travel stories, because that's not how this is meant at all. I'm just interested in seeing how a time travel story would turn out if Cloud didn't want to be there _at all_.

Let me know what you think!

[Eternal]


	2. Chapter 2: Just Can't Win

Summary: Time travel. Sounds like fun, right? No. No it's not. Cloud was determined to get back home, the past be damned, but with Aerith haunting his every step it didn't look like that'd be happening any time soon. No pairings.

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**Remnant of the Vacant**_  
Chapter 2: Just Can't Win_

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Cloud was pissed. Beyond pissed, as a matter of fact. He'd hoped being insubordinate and _knocking out_ his instructor would be enough to get him kicked out of the Shinra military program. Turned out it wasn't. No, instead his superiors were _delighted_ by his show of skill. They were now letting him train on his own, which he supposed was a good thing, since he didn't have to work with the rest of the cadets.

But he was still stuck in Shinra. And Aerith was laughing at him. Loudly.

Over the next week most the cadets learned to steer clear of him. They also learned to ignore how he often talked into the air, which Cloud found a bit odd. He had yet to be asked about it by even a _single_ person. He'd have thought that Shinra would be more selective about who they let work for them.

Then he remembered that Hojo was the head of the science department.

When in class, Cloud generally sat in the back of the room and made paper airplanes out his "notes". There were a few classes where he found he knew even more than the teacher on the subject, but there were also a few classes where he knew nearly nothing. Tactics was a perfect example of the latter; the rest of AVALANCHE were generally the ones who took care of that sort of stuff. He was usually the one who just walked in, killed everything, and then walked out. He'd simply never _needed_ tactics.

But he had to admit that it was a surprisingly interesting class.

Exactly one week from the day Cloud first joined—was _physically forced_ to join—Shinra, he had his first Materia Class. Personally, he thought it was insane to give a bunch of kids materia and then tell them to run wild, but he supposed it was good to give them at least _some_ instruction in the subject.

"Line up," the instructor grunted to the class. "You'll each get a materia and attempt to cast a spell on the target in front of you. How well you do will depend on both your experience and your aptitude towards magic. Speaking of which...How many of you have used a materia before?"

Half a dozen of the cadets raised their hands, Cloud included. The moment his eyes fell on Cloud, the instructor twitched.

"It figures," he sighed. "Who the hell let you near a materia, Strife?"

Cloud gave the older man a bright smile. "Well you see, there was this one incident with Sephiroth—"

"I'm sure," the instructor cut him off with growl. "Just...Don't blow anything up. You've already caused more than enough property damage to the building since you got here."

Cloud's smile turned razor sharp. "Are you sure about that?" he asked. In his opinion, there was no such thing as too much damage to Shinra.

The instructor ignored him in favor of passing out the materia. When in came to be Cloud's turn, the blond was almost given a Fire materia, but the instructor instantly switched it out for a Restore materia. Cloud glared at the man silently.

He _liked_ fire.

With a sigh, Cloud fit the materia into the bracer on his wrist. The rest of his mastered materia were already there and Cloud fiddled with the idea of using one of them instead for a moment. It was surprising that no one had tried to take away any of them yet, but he though that that was most likely thanks to Aerith's intervention—it was probably the same reason why no one was capable of noticing his obviously glowing, mako-enhanced eyes.

One SOLDIER _had_ attempted to take First Tsurugi away a few days earlier. Cloud had tossed the man through a second story window—what? He was a SOLDIER, he'd survive—while ignoring Aerith's disapproving glare. There was no way in _hell_ he was going to let someone touch his sword.

Cloud sighed once again before holding his hand up and casting Cure. Instantly the materia glowed so brightly that the room was bathed in a blinding light. Once it had faded everyone was left groaning and blinking dark spots from their eyes.

"Dammit Strife!"

"What? It's not _my_ fault," Cloud protested. He shot a glare at Aerith. "Did you know that it was going to do that?"

Aerith was wearing a grin that was attempting to look innocent, but failing miserably. "Of _course_ not," she answered.

"Right," Cloud drawled sarcastically. "_That's_ believable."

"It's not _my_ fault if the Planet likes you."

"Oh, so now you're blaming it on the Planet? Real mature."

"You've got a lot of experience with materia," Aerith said, ignoring Cloud's comment. "It's only natural that they would respond better to you."

"Yeah, maybe, but not _that_ much better. This isn't a side affect of the whole 'pocket dimension' thing, is it?"

"Maybe."

And there she went with the cryptic reply thing, Cloud thought with an internal sigh. He swore she did that just to toy with him. The blue eyed swordsman glanced away from Aerith and saw that the class was staring at him again. They didn't look fearful anymore—though they certainly had the first few days he'd been there—just morbidly amused.

"What?"

The instructor sighed. "Only you could manage to hurt someone with a _Restore_ materia, Strife."

Cloud did his best to look affronted. "I didn't _hurt_—"

"Wagner has retina damage," the man interrupted.

Cloud suddenly noticed that the man's hand was on the shoulder of a young cadet who had his eyes tightly shut and was whimpering quietly. Cloud winced; he hadn't _meant_ to do anything like that. Briefly, he shot another glare at Aerith.

"This is all your fault," he grumbled. This time she did look sheepish. Cloud glanced back at the instructor while lifting the Restore materia again. "I can heal him—"

"_No_," the instructor said quickly. "Just...Take him to the infirmary. They'll take care of him there."

Cloud shrugged and dropped his arm. "Your loss."

When Cloud turned towards the door however, he found that someone was already there, watching him. He froze for a moment, positive that he was looking at Zack. The man's features registered in his mind a second later and Cloud's shoulders drooped slightly. While this newcomer _did_ look a lot like Zack, there were a few noticeable differences. This man was older, for one, and he was taller and broader too. His hair was also no where near as spiky as Zack's had been.

The man raised one dark eyebrow as his eyes swept over the class. "What happened, Tanner?"

The instructor straightened instantly. "Lieutenant General Angeal, sir!" he said with a salute. "There was a mishap during the cadets' practice with materia."

Angeal frowned. "His eyes?" he questioned, referring to the injured boy.

Tanner looked hesitant. "It was a Restore materia," he admitted grudgingly. "Wagner was near it when it was used and the light blinded him."

While this conversation went on, Cloud had been staring at Angeal with something akin to shock. _Angeal_? This was _Angeal_? The man who was Zack's mentor? Cloud had heard so much about him, but he'd never met the before.

Abruptly Cloud's thoughts came to a halting stop before screeching backwards. Zack! Zack was alive!

"Holy shit!" Cloud shouted while simultaneously dashing past Angeal and out the door.

"_Strife_!" Tanner roared after him, but he was already gone and out the door.

"Cloud?" Aerith asked as she floated along with him. _She_ didn't have run and instead was drawn along by some invisible force. Damn ghosts.

"Zack's alive," Cloud replied shortly. His eyes were scanning each corridor he passed with unwavering intensity and a sharp skill that could only come from experience. "I've got find him—"

"You're only just realizing this now?" Aerith asked dryly. Cloud glared at her—something he seemed to be doing quite often lately—but she only shrugged. "Slow down, Cloud," she continued. "You don't know where Zack is, or even what rank he is."

That comment gave him pause and Cloud reluctantly slowed to a stop. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

"You met Zack when you were sixteen, yes?" the Cetra began patiently. "But _technically_ right now you're fourteen. So, even if Zack was a SOLDIER 1st-class when you met him, he could be a 2nd or even 3rd right now. You don't have the faintest idea where to start looking."

Cloud scowled fiercely and proceeded to spend the next few minutes attempting to bore a hole through the wall with the force of his gaze alone. As much as he loathed admitting it, Aerith was right. He had no way to figure out where Zack was. Hell, he couldn't even ask Angeal about it because _he_ might not have met Zack yet.

"Come on," Aerith said softly. "Let's go back, yeah?"

Cloud didn't bother to reply.

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Genesis was utterly baffled. It was not an emotion he was used to feeling, which both annoyed and intrigued him. What made the situation all the stranger was that said bafflement was caused by a young _cadet_ who didn't look like he could be older than twenty.

But that wasn't what his registration papers said. No, Cloud Strife's age was reported as being -213. Not just 213, but _negative_ 213. Genesis couldn't help but gape at the blond's papers. Everything on the sheets was completely and utterly bizarre.

Name? Cloud Strife. – Normal enough, if one ignored the fact that he was named after the weather and an emotion.

Hometown? "Where the ashes of the original Nibelheim now rest." – Direct quote. Curious about that one, Genesis had taken the time to do a small amount of research on the town, only to find that it had never had _any_ major fires, let alone one large enough to burn down the "original Nibelheim".

Greatest accomplishment? Killing Sephiroth and his various clones. – Self explanatory. Genesis had seen Sephiroth not a half an hour before, which meant that he was still very much alive, and he was pretty sure the general didn't have any "clones" running around.

Previous training? Spent fifteen years mediating in the Crater on the northern continent. – Genesis wasn't entirely sure what to make of this one. It was impossible because of Strife's age—apparent, not the one he wrote down—and also impossible because people _just didn't do that_. Though, when it came to Strife, he was willing to make some exceptions.

Other important information? "Currently trapped in the past against my will." – ...He didn't have anything to say to that. Really, he didn't.

Genesis sighed heavily and dropped the file back onto his desk. This went far beyond odd. He was nearly ready to write Strife off as nothing more than insane cadet, if not for how his instincts screamed every time he got near the blond.

Heavy footsteps coming from the hallway reached Genesis' ears, perking his interest. It took him only a moment to calculate the approximate height and weight of the person from the sound of their footfalls and the length of their stride, and from there he recognized the visitor as Angeal Hewley, his fellow Lieutenant General. Sure enough, moments later the office door opened and the dark haired swordsman stepped inside.

"Angeal," Genesis greeted evenly. His gaze dropped back to the file before him.

Angeal grunted in reply and sank into the nearest chair with a heavy sigh. He rubbed his temple with one finger, as if to stave off an encroaching headache.

"Why can we never have a simple, uncomplicated day?" he grumbled.

Genesis glanced up with a raised eyebrow. "Uncomplicated? In Shinra? Blasphemy," he replied dryly. "...What happened anyway? You look like you've had a rough day."

Pursing his lips slightly, Angeal shrugged. "Not rough, per se, just...odd," he said. "I had to deal with a situation with a cadet materia class. One of the cadets managed to get hurt...By a Restore materia."

Now_ that_ caught Genesis' attention. He glanced up sharply, a frown stretched across his face.

"A _Restore_ materia?" he repeated dubiously. "Did it backfire or something?"

"No. Apparently, when it was used it lit up brightly and the cadet, who was standing near the caster, got his retinas damaged. It's strange though...The other cadet, the caster, wasn't hurt at all."

Genesis chuckled briefly. "Sounds like something Sephiroth would do," he said. "Well, it sounds like either the materia malfunctioned or the cadet who cast the spell has a massive amount of magic. Who's the cadet anyway?"

"Cloud Strife."

Genesis resisted the suddenly overwhelming urge to twitch. "...Strife, you say?" he asked. Angeal quirked his eyebrow questioningly and Genesis sighed, picked up Strife's file, and tossed it to him.

The eyebrow rose a little higher at the action, but Angeal grudgingly opened the file and began to flip through. Genesis found it quite amusing to watch the swordsman's slowly falling expression as he scanned through the papers. Finally, Angeal looked back up, looking rather disturbed.

"Who _is_ this kid?"

Genesis shrugged. He honestly didn't have an answer.

Yet.

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"What are you smiling about?"

Cloud just hummed happily, not bothering to reply. He was tapping his finger periodically on the armrest of his chair and bobbing his head, as though humming along to a song in his head. And, of course, there was a wide smile stretched across his face.

All the other cadets in the room were giving him a wide berth that day.

"Cloud?" Aerith repeated warily.

"I'm off-duty today," he finally replied. The tapping picked up speed for a moment. "First day and the only day for the next month.

Aerith's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What are you planning?" she wondered aloud.

Cloud grin widened marginally. "Planning?" he said innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about. _I'm_ just going to _enjoy_ my off day to its fullest."

"Right. _That's_ reassuring."

"Of course it is. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going in 3...2...1!"

Abruptly Cloud was out of his seat and racing down the hall. The other cadets flattened themselves against the nearest walls and watched him go by with wide eyes. Cloud resisted the urge to cackle loudly for only a moment before giving in and doing so. The terrified looks he received from the receptionists as he breezed through the lobby were _so_ worth it.

Cloud changed his course slightly once he was outside so that it took him to the Shinra parking garage, where his motorcycle, Fenrir, was currently parked. It took him only a moment to find it amongst the masses of vehicles and only a moment more to hop on it, start it up, and then drive out.

As Cloud raced through the streets of Midgar with the wind whipping through his hair, he couldn't help but finally relax. He'd missed being able to ride Fenrir whenever he wanted more than he'd realized in the past month.

When the blond headed onto the highway that lead down to the lower plate, Aerith—who was once again sitting on the front of Fenrir, much to Cloud's annoyance—instantly tensed up. She gave him a cautious look, obviously curious about where they were heading. A self-satisfied smirk was her only reply—and only warning.

Cloud was able to easily wind his way through the back roads of the slums thanks to some old drudged up memories of his time with AVALANCHE. It seemed like so long since Midgar had been destroyed, even though in reality it had only been four years. Still, four years was a long time, especially to someone like him, who had lost five years of his life.

It didn't take Aerith very long to figure out where Cloud was headed. It took an even shorter amount of time for her to begin to protest vehemently.

"No," she said firmly. "No, no, _no_. You're _not_ heading to my church! What if I—er, my past self, or...Whatever!—am there?"

"That's the whole point," Cloud answered cheerfully. If Aerith was going to make his life hell, then it was only polite to return the favor. "Besides, won't this help me to 'forgive myself'?"

Aerith's mouth opened and closed silently several times as she attempted to find some way around Cloud's words. Finally her mouth closed with an audible click and she settled for glaring at him instead. The swordsmen smiled smugly.

Cloud pulled up in front of Aerith's church and cut the engine. He took a moment to stare up at the majestic building, marveling at how pristine it looked when compared to his memories. Back home—in the "real world", as Aerith put it—the ceiling was almost nonexistent and the entire area was littered with debris.

And, of course, one couldn't forget the giant pool in the floor.

It was nice to see the church undamaged as it'd once been, Cloud had to admit. That certainly didn't mean that he wanted to be here, but..._Maybe_ it wasn't _quite_ so bad.

The blue eyed man walked into the church with more confidence than he was actually feeling. His gaze was glued on the masses of flowers at the far end of the building, where a young girl was kneeling.

"This...is decidedly odd," the Aerith beside Cloud murmured.

Cloud snorted in reply. "You think?" he shot back. "How do you think _I _feel?"

At the sound of his voice, the younger girl before him whirled around, surprise clear on her face. A soft "Oh!" slipped from her lips.

"Greetings, last of the Cetra," Cloud said in a forced flat voice. Internally he cackled gleefully as her eyes widened marginally. "It's nice to finally get a chance to meet you; I've heard much about you."

"...From who?" she asked cautiously. She had slowly stood up and looked ready to bolt at any moment.

"The gnomes," Cloud replied with a grave nod.

Aerith's jaw dropped—both of them. "_What_?" they said incredulously at the same time.

Cloud struggled his keep his face straight, but thankfully had years of experience to help him. "Yes, the gnomes," he continued. "You know, the ones that steal your socks and hide your pens. _Those_ gnomes."

The older Aerith snorted. "Oh please," she scoffed. "Like my younger self is going to believe that—"

"The...gnomes...told you about me?"

Cloud shot ghost-Aerith a victorious grin. "Yes," he replied. "They hide in the life stream, you know."

Ghost-Aerith's jaw dropped again. "Are you calling me a gnome?" she demanded.

The blond just smiled innocently. Meanwhile, the younger Aerith looked torn between bursting out laughing and running off. Cloud nodded solemnly once again and turned to leave.

"Remember," he said as he walked out. "The gnomes are always watching, waiting for a chance to molest your socks."

Seeing the wide-eyed expression on her counterpart's face, ghost-Aerith didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

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A/N: Wow that got really weird towards the end there. And now I can't get the image out of head of a solemn looking Cloud explaining the "threat of the gnomes" to Vincent. (**twitches**) Sufficiently amusing, but also utterly bizarre.

Anyway, I have a lot of fun writing this story because it's a break from the much more serious stories that I usually write. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon...But I doubt it, since I've got so much other stuff I'm working on. Regardless, I'll finish as soon as I can.

And by the way, the gnomes _do_ exist, I swear. Every single fucking time I put the pen I'm using down it disappears and I have to spend five minutes searching for it. It was marginally amusing the first time, but after the five hundredth time it just makes me want to maul nearest inanimate object—preferably something small and furry. Maybe a stuffed animal...

Please let me know what you think!

[Eternal]


	3. Chapter 3: Russian Roulette

Summary: Time travel. Sounds like fun, right? No. No it's not. Cloud was determined to get back home, the past be damned, but with Aerith haunting his every step it didn't look like that'd be happening any time soon. No pairings.

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**Remnant of the Vacant**_  
Chapter 3: Russian Roulette_

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Cloud could safely say that he'd never been normal. When he'd been a kid he'd always been something of an outcast. His teenage years had been spent joining the military, witnessing the rampage of a homicidal maniac, and floating in a tube of mako. His twenties had been spent saving the world—twice. Three times, if you counted the incident with Deepground, but Vincent had been the real hero there.

And, of course, recently his entire world had gone to hell—literally, in his opinion. He was pretty sure no one else could say that they'd been sent to the past and stalked by not a vengeful ghost, but a "forgiving" one.

So, yeah, his life was fucked up.

However, as strange as Cloud was, he couldn't help but wonder about the man before him. Said man was diligently working on a crossword puzzle with the fervor of a dying man...All while sitting on _Cloud's_ bed.

"...What the hell?" the blond wondered aloud.

"My sentiment exactly," the man said without looking up.

Cloud continued to stare. He'd just walked out of his last class and come back here to spend some time alone—for once even Aerith was gone, apparently trusting that he wouldn't try to leave again—only to find someone sitting on his bed. _His_ bed. And he thought he might recognize the man too, though he couldn't remember from where.

But, of course, such was Cloud's life. Nothing _ever_ went smoothly.

With a sigh, Cloud took a seat across from the man and peered curiously at the crossword puzzle in his hands. It was already more than half completed, but the brown haired man was currently stuck on one and was staring at it intently.

"The Northern Crater," Cloud realized after a moment.

The man glanced up sharply. "What?"

Cloud blinked in surprise; had he spoken aloud? "Northern Crater," he repeated after a moment. "That's the answer."

The man glanced incredulously between the puzzle and Cloud. "...And how did you know that?" he asked finally.

The blond shrugged. "I know a bit about the area," he said simply, not deigning to give away any other info.

"Right." Cloud wasn't sure whether that meant that the man believed him or not, but he didn't care much either way.

Looking back down, the man continued to work on his crossword while Cloud leaned back against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. It crossed his mind for a second to kick the other man out—said man hadn't even mentioned _why_ he was there when he clearly wasn't a cadet, but didn't seem to mind Cloud's presence anyway—but, frankly, he was too tired and lazy at the moment to do anything.

Cloud had been resting for several minutes when he tensed suddenly, sensing that there was someone directly in front of him. When he opened his eyes, he found Aerith's face less than a foot away from his. Instantly, Cloud yelped loudly, tumbled off his bed, and landed in crouch on the floor.

"Dammit! Don't _do_ that!" he snapped. He stood swiftly and straightened his clothes while muttering angrily about "annoying ghosts".

Unrepentant, Aerith shrugged. "I can't help where I'm going to show up when I return."

Cloud scoffed. "Yeah right—"

"Ghost?"

Cloud started and whirled around to stare at the dark haired man, who was still sitting on his bed. He'd completely forgotten that he was there.

"What?"

"Ghost," the man repeated. "You said ghost."

"...Yeah." Cloud shrugged. "Damn _thing_ won't leave me alone." Aerith scowled and hit him over the head, to which he responded with a glare of his own. "And speaking of which," he said to her, "How come you can touch me, but I pass right through you?"

"That's just how Gaia works," Aerith answered.

Cloud didn't believe it for a second.

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Cloud had to admit that the view from the top of Shinra Military Headquarters was beautiful.

...So long as you ignored the smog. And the mako reactors. And the wasteland that surrounded Midgar.

Alright, so he was grasping at straws here, but he'd had little to be thankful for lately. The least he could do was praise the view as he enjoyed the sunset and basked in the knowledge that he _finally_ had some peace.

The door behind him banged open.

Cloud hung his head and sighed. It figured. He was pretty sure that fate hated his guts, or at least was determined to laugh its ass off at him.

"Eh?!" the newcomer exclaimed. Clearly they, too, hadn't expected anyone else to be up here.

Cloud sighed silently, but didn't turn around to look. He hoped against all hope that if he just ignored the other man, he'd go away. But, of course, things were never that easy—at least not for Cloud.

"Dammit," the other person swore. "Usually no one's here!" Despite his words, the man—or perhaps teen; Cloud had always been horrible at judging ages—walked up to Cloud and stood next to him. "So, what're _you_ escaping from?"

Sighing for a third time, Cloud titled his head to the side just enough so that he could see the other man—

—And promptly choked as he was confronted with a _very_ familiar head of red hair.

"Reno?!"

The man blinked a couple of times, surprised by the outburst. A grin quickly overtook his features though and he beamed proudly.

"Yep!" he declared. He waggled his eyebrows. "Heard of me, have you? I'm not surprised; I'm the greatest Turk—"

Cloud stared as the redhead began to ramble on. It was definitely Reno. He didn't have a pony tail and he was skinnier and shorter, but it was him. Cloud couldn't help it then: He threw his head back and laughed.

Reno instantly stopped short and stared at Cloud with his mouth hanging open. After a minute, the redhead drew himself up, indignant, and opened his mouth to demand what was so funny. Before he could, however, Cloud finally began to calm down. The older swordsman shook his head and clapped Reno on the shoulder.

"Sorry about that," he said while still chuckling. "It's just good to finally see a familiar face."

And it was true; other than Aerith—who'd been dead for four years in his world—Reno was the first person he'd seen that he already knew. Of course, _this_ Reno didn't know that. As such, the young Turk was standing there, staring at him with a baffled look on his face.

"…Familiar face?" he repeated uncomprehendingly.

Cloud smirked while nodding. "I'm from the future," he said casually. "I've known you for a number of years."

Reno did a pretty good impression of a fish for a few seconds. "I—You—…Huh? The _future_?"

With a solemn nod, Cloud replied, "An insane ghost sent me back in time in order to force me to save the world…Again."

Reno looked as though he didn't have the slightest idea of what to say to that. After a moment, however, he apparently came to the conclusion that Cloud was joking and began to snicker.

"The future," he repeated amusedly. "Alright then, what's it like there?"

"An evil alien tried to take over the world by hijacking General Sephiroth's mind and convincing him that it was his mother."

That gobsmacked look returned to Reno's face and Cloud was barely able to stop himself from laughing aloud. Back at home he never would have done something like this, but here, where his actions didn't matter, he'd found great joy in shocking—and occasionally terrifying—people.

"That's a good one," Reno finally said. His smile had returned once more. "Though, couldn't you come up with something just a little more realistic?"

Cloud shrugged. "I've never had that great of an imagination."

"Doesn't sound like it so me," the Turk shot back. "Say, who are you anyway?"

"Cloud Strife."

"'Cloud', really? Your parents must have hated you or something to name you that. What SOLDIER rank are you?"

The blond blinked in surprise. "SOLDIER? Er, no, I'm a cadet."

Reno rolled his eyes. "Bullshit. I can see the mako in your eyes. There's no way that you're _not_ a SOLIDER."

Again Cloud was surprised. As far as he knew, Reno was the first person to recognize his glowing, mako-enhanced eyes.

Before either of them could say any more, a jingling tune filled the air. Reno cursed aloud and rifled though his pockets for a moment before pulling out his cell phone.

"Yeah?" he answered. "I—Oh…Yeah, yeah…Whatever; I'll be right there." With an annoyed sigh he flipped the phone closed and replaced in the mess that was his suit. "Sorry 'bout this, Cloudy, but I gotta go. See you around, ne?"

Cloud snorted at the name and waved him off. "Whatever, Reno."

Grinning widely, the redhead began to jog backwards towards the stairwell so that he could still see Cloud. "And you'll have to tell me another story sometime!" he exclaimed. Then, with another laugh, he disappeared into the building.

Cloud waited several minutes before leaving as well. The sun had long since gone down and it was beginning to get cold—and in Midgar, when it got cold, it got _cold_. It was a byproduct of all the pollution in the air. So instead, Cloud took to strolling through the halls at a sedate pace. Technically, he shouldn't have been there, considering the time, but he just couldn't bring himself to care.

He didn't get more than a couple hundred feet into the building, however, before he rounded a corner and immediately had to sidestep, less he run into a person coming the opposite direction. And, naturally, it turned out to be someone he knew: The puzzle-man from a few days before.

With a near silent groan, Cloud moved aside to allow the other man to pass. The puzzle-man didn't continue on, however, but instead stopped to stare at Cloud with a raised eyebrow. The blond twitched.

"You know," Puzzleman began dryly, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were stalking me."

"I am," Cloud replied seriously. Both he and Puzzleman were blatantly ignoring the fact that it'd been Puzzleman who'd come into his room first, several days ago. "I'm stalking you. In plain sight. In broad daylight. With permission from the government."

"…It's dark out right now," Puzzleman pointed out.

Cloud just nodded. "Exactly."

"…Right. Well, if you're going to be stalking me in plain sight, then why don't you join me for a walk?"

The blond swordsman was highly tempted to just knock Puzzleman out and walk away, but he didn't. Loathe as he was to admit it, Puzzleman intrigued him. Cloud didn't know who he was or what he wanted, despite the numerous times he'd run into him. Puzzleman was just that—a puzzle.

So, instead of knocking Puzzleman out, Cloud shrugged. "Sure, whatever," he replied. "Where are you headed?"

"Down to my office."

One of Cloud's eyebrows quirked upwards. "You have an office?" he asked curiously. "You're a military officer?"

Puzzleman nodded. "Yes," he said simply.

The two lapsed back into a comfortable silence for the rest of the walk. All that could be heard was the muffled sound of their boots against the tile. Puzzleman's footsteps were actually a fair bit louder than Cloud's, but that was only because Vincent had taught Cloud how to walk like a Turk a few years ago.

Eventually Puzzleman stopped in front of one of the airlock doors with a digital code that section off the more "important" parts of the Shinra Military Headquarters. Cloud watched curiously as Puzzleman entered the pass code with a speed that suggested he'd been doing so for a long time. Again Cloud found himself curious about whom Puzzleman was.

After that they passed through several more such doors, each with more and more complex codes. With each door that they passed through, Cloud curiosity was also piqued just a little bit more. Finally, Puzzleman opened an office door that was a little ways off a wide hallway. He stepped up to the desk here and began to rifle through some papers while muttering softly to himself. Cloud followed him inside, casting an interested look around the office.

The room looked surprisingly lived-in for a military office. There was a tall stack of books beneath the single window, a magazine tossed haphazardly onto one of the chairs, and a red coat—identical to the one Puzzleman was currently wearing—was hanging from a hook on the back of the door. There were also a few other odd things around the room that also gave it a very unique atmosphere.

Cloud nudged a book on the edge of Puzzleman's desk and looked down at it curiously. "_Loveless_," he read aloud. He didn't recognize the name, but he'd never really been one for reading.

"Brilliant play," Puzzleman said, glancing up briefly from what he was doing. "You should read it sometime."

The blond shrugged and turned away. A moment later, Puzzleman began to chuckle.

"Not one for words, are you?"

Again Cloud shrugged. "I have nothing to say," he said honestly.

"Good rule to live by, that," Puzzleman answered. "Only say what you need to. Anything more might be too much." He paused for a moment, contemplative. "By the way, is that 'ghost' still following you around?"

"Not right now," Cloud replied. "She disappears sometimes and then reappears at the most inopportune times—" He blinked and suddenly Aerith appeared, standing a few feet behind Puzzleman.

Cloud glared at her over Puzzleman's shoulder. "She also is apparently watching me from a distance," he said pointedly. "Definitely a _stalker_ ghost."

Aerith rolled her eyes and, to Cloud's utter shock, actually flipped him off. He gaped openly; he'd never before seen her be rude to a single person, let alone swear or anything.

While Cloud proceeded to splutter incoherently, Puzzleman glanced over his shoulder and shivered, as though he could feel something there. He looked back at Cloud with a frown on his face.

"A ghost, you say?" he murmured.

Cloud wondered why the contemplative look on Puzzleman's face suddenly bothered him.

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Reno exhaled sharply as he plopped down into a large, padded chair. "You wanted to see me, boss-man?" he asked. The man sitting at the desk across from him nudged a file forward.

"You didn't fill out your last mission report," he said shortly.

Reno groaned loudly. "Oh, come _on_," he whined, "Why do I have to—"

"_Reno_."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm doin' it."

Still muttering under his breath, Reno flipped the folder open and began to systematically fill out the papers under the watchful eye of his boss. After a couple of minutes however, his scribbling gradually slowed to stop and Reno was left staring blankly at the paper without really seeing it.

"…Hey, Veld?" he finally said. A grunt was his reply. "You know all the SOLDIERs, right?"

Veld frowned. "Yes," he answered finally. There was a suspicious look on his face. "Why? What kind of trouble have you gotten into this time?"

"Oh come _on_! Why does everyone always assume that I'm in trouble?!" Reno protested.

"Because you usually are."

"…Point. But I'm _not_ this time," he assured. "I just ran into this really odd SOLIDER earlier and I was wondering if you knew anything about him.

Veld quirked an eyebrow. "It's strange for you to take an interest in such things," he commented.

Reno shrugged. "Normally I wouldn't give a damn," he agreed, "But this guy insisted that he was a cadet even though he obviously had mako-enhanced eyes. There was just something…off…about him."

"Off? How so?"

The younger Turk rolled his shoulders in a hesitant shrug. "I'm not sure. I just have one of those feelings, ya know? It's almost like déjà vu—like I've met him before. Oh! That was another weird thing: He said that he knew me."

Veld relaxed back in his seat and snorted softly. "Then you probably did know him and just forgot about it."

Reno thrust his chin into the air indignantly. "I don't forget things!" he proclaimed. "I remember the face and name of every single person I meet and I _know_ that I've never met this guy before."

"Except that he seems to have met you," Veld pointed out.

Reno deflated. "Yeah," he agreed. "Like I said, he was really odd."

Veld's gaze drifted over to the wall behind Reno's head. "Odd…" he mused to himself.

"You know something?"

"…Perhaps. I have heard recently of a mentally unstable cadet in the military program," Veld replied.

Reno's eyes widened marginally. "A _cadet_?" he repeated, remembering Cloud's denial of being in the SOLDIER program.

"A cadet," Veld agreed. "A cadet…"

How odd.

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A/N: Geez, short chapter. I was going to make it longer, but I felt like ending it there, so here you go. As compensation, hopefully the next one will be up sooner…Though I really shouldn't be working on this story so much; I've been neglecting my other stories because of it. But I really can't help what I have inspiration to write, so meh.

And besides, this story is just so much fun to write. On a similar note, I bought a new laptop recently, which makes me very happy. Hopefully that happiness will also transfer over to give me more drive to work on writing.

Also, in case you didn't notice, the titles of chapters in this story are actually a song titles and the story title itself is a line from a song. I'll be surprised if anyone knows the song that this chapter is titled after though—which is a pity because it's a good song and actually fits Cloud pretty well.

Thanks for all of the reviews for the last chapter! Your encouragement is much appreciated.

[Eternal]

_"Do you ever get that strange feeling of vujà dé? Not déjà vu; vujà de. It's the distinct sense that, somehow, something just happened that has never happened before. Nothing seems familiar. And then suddenly the feeling is gone. Vujà dé." – George Carlin_


	4. Chapter 4: Dangerous Game

Summary: Time travel. Sounds like fun, right? No. No it's not. Cloud was determined to get back home, the past be damned, but with Aerith haunting his every step it didn't look like that'd be happening any time soon. No pairings.

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**Remnant of the Vacant  
**_Chapter 4: Dangerous Game_

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"You need to be more careful!" Aerith scolded loudly. Cloud dutifully ignored her, much to her aggravation.

Stomping her feet angrily, Aerith stood directly in Cloud's path with her hands on her hips. Even as she opened her mouth to continue though, the blond haired man just walked straight through her.

"_Cloud_!" she snarled. "Stop walking away!"

Gritting his teeth, Cloud finally did so while turning around to glare at her. "Look, Aerith, it's fine," he snapped. "It doesn't matter what I say or do; you said so yourself that I could do whatever here."

"I said that because I thought you would want to fix things!"

"Well I _don't_! Yeah, the entire world was pretty screwed up, but we finally _did_ achieve peace in the end. Don't you understand? I was finally able to _relax_! But now instead of doing that, you've pulled me back into the fucking past in order to 'fix things'! There's nothing left to fix!"

Aerith's lips thinned into a tight line. "You don't understand, Cloud," she said softly.

"Then explain it to me! What is this supposed to achieve?"

The ghost-girl just shook her head. "I—…No. If you don't know, then you're just going to have to figure it out for yourself."

Now it was Cloud's turn to frown. "You keep going on about, 'forgiving myself'," he said. "Is that still what this is about?"

Again Aerith just shook her head, refusing to say anymore. Then she closed her eyes and disappeared.

Frustrated, Cloud kicked the nearest wall. "And stop randomly disappearing!"

Abruptly Cloud became aware that he was standing in the middle of a semi-crowded hallway. Everyone around him had stopped to stare as he apparently had a conversation with the air. Still ticked off, Cloud threw them all a menacing glare.

"What are you looking at?" he snapped.

The younger, wide-eyed boys jumped and quickly scuttled away. The older warriors gave him a mixture of amused and wary looks before going on their way as well. Cloud kicked the wall once more for good measure.

"Uh, are you okay?"

Cloud twitched at the familiar voice. "No, Reno," he growled without turning around. "I'm not fucking _okay_."

"Whoa, no need to get pissy, man. It was just a question."

Realizing that he was practically throwing a temper tantrum, Cloud closed his eyes and breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm himself. "Sorry," he muttered.

"You, uh, have 'episodes' like this a lot?" Reno asked hesitantly.

Cloud did nothing to stop the small chuckle that slipped out between his lips. He finally turned around to face the red headed Turk, a small smirk on his face.

"Episodes?" he repeated. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Then he turned and walked away, leaving a gaping Reno behind.

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"…You've been doing well."

Cloud grinned widely at the grudging tone of the SOLDIER instructor. Said man was the same one that he'd accidently thrown into a wall on one of his first days in this world. He'd been jumpy around Cloud ever since then, as though torn between being pissed at him or afraid of him. Probably a mixture of both.

"And?"

The 2nd Class SOLDIER gritted his teeth in an attempt to stifle his anger. "And so the higher-ups are thinking of promoting you soon. You'll be taking an examination for the SOLDIER program with the next group instead of waiting another eight months."

Cloud nodded slowly, understanding what the instructor was saying. Shinra took in a new batch of cadets into its military program every four months and then trained them for a year before testing them to see whether they'd go into the SOLDIER program or the regulation military. Cloud had been a cadet for almost four months now—though he could hardly believe that it'd been that long—so he _should_ take the exam in another eight months with the rest of his "class".

Apparently, however, the higher-ups had finally decided that keeping him in training for that long was pointless and stupid, especially with war with Wutai looming on the horizon. Since the cadets who'd joined the military program a year ago—three groups before Cloud—were just about to take their exam, he'd be joining them.

The blond shrugged. "Alright," he agreed. "Sounds fine to me."

Suddenly the SOLDIER instructor smiled and Cloud was pretty sure that he wasn't imaging the sadistic edge to it. "Perfect," he all but purred. "The test is tomorrow. Be at Gym #3 by 0800 or don't bother showing up at all."

While the SOLDIER instructor strode off while grinning victoriously, Cloud just shook his head and smiled in amusement. An exam tomorrow? How on Gaia could he _not_ be ready? It seemed that some people still hadn't figured out that he was more than just your average cadet. This also reaffirmed Cloud's belief that he was far from the only person in Shinra who was off his rocker—even if his "insanity" was half an act.

Cloud was up by six easily the next morning and ready for the exam not even an hour later. He'd been having some pretty strange sleeping patterns lately, so getting up early wasn't an issue. Cloud blamed his habits entirely on Aerith, who was in the habit of appearing randomly in the middle of the night. And since Cloud was a very light sleeper—a habit of constantly having his life endanger out in the wild—he would inevitably jerk awake.

Speaking of which, it was actually quite strange to Cloud that he hadn't seen Aerith at all since the morning before. She'd been disappearing a lot recently and for longer and longer periods of time. Cloud considered the situation for a moment longer before shrugging it off; it probably didn't matter.

The exam was being held in Gym #3, which was one of the largest gyms in the Military Headquarters, baring the one open only to SOLDIERs. It was two stories high, and thus had a massive, arched ceiling, and was easily able to hold several hundred people. Even as Cloud approached the gym he began to run into numerous cadets and SOLDIERs, all heading in the same direction. The cadets were, obviously, there to take the test and the SOLDIERs were there because the exam was open for them to watch.

Of course, the term "exam" was actually used very lightly. It was really just a series of spars set up so that the higher-up SOLDIERs could see how they performed in a battle situation. They used those spars and their performance throughout their training to decide who would be the best candidates for SOLDIER. A week later the results would be announced and a few dozen cadets would be picked.

Just being picked didn't automatically qualify a cadet to become a 3rd Class SOLDIER though. They would then have to go through testing to see how tolerant they were to processed mako. Only the candidates who passed _that_ test would go onto to become a SOLDIER. Even those who didn't pass, however, were all but guaranteed a position as an officer in the regulation military, so getting picked was a win-win either way.

Last time, Cloud hadn't made it past the first round, having been knocked out within the first two minutes of his spar. That his opponent had gone on to be one of the few admitted into the SOLDIER program didn't help his pride any.

The blue eyed warrior was harshly broken from his musings when what felt like a freight train barreled into his back. Cloud himself barely swayed into place, but the "projectile" fell to the ground with a loud _oomph!_ Blinking in surprise, Cloud turned around, but he barely had time to catch sight of the person who'd run into him before they'd bounced back to their feet, laughing uneasily.

"Hey man, sorry about that!" they exclaimed. "I wasn't looking were I was going."

"Er, that's fi— _Zack?!_"

The dark haired young man reeled back, surprised and confused by Cloud's outburst. It didn't help any that the blond was spluttering and gaping while waving his hands around.

"You—I—!" Cloud said as he struggled to get over his shock. Dear _Gaia_! Finally meeting Zack here of all places!

Poor Zack looked utterly bewildered. "Uh…Sorry, but…Do I know you?"

Grinning from ear to ear—certainly wider than he'd ever smiled before—Cloud clapped his old friend on the shoulder. "Yes. Yes, you do."

"O…kay?"

Still smiling, Cloud intertwined his fingers behind his head and laughed. "So, are you here to see the exam?"

As though a switch had been flipped inside Zack's head, the dark haired youth suddenly smiled brightly, completely forgetting the strangeness of the situation. "Nope!" he said enthusiastically. "I'm taking it! I'm a cadet."

Startled by the proclamation, Cloud took a moment to _really_ look at Zack and found to his surprise that he was a lot different that he remembered. Zack couldn't have been more than sixteen! And certainly he was a far cry from the confident, broadsword wielding SOLDIER of his memories.

"How about you?" Zack continued, not even noticing Cloud expression. "Are you a cadet or a SOLDIER?"

"Cadet," Cloud answered faintly.

"Oh, so you're taking it to! Great! I don't remember seeing you before though. But since you know me, then I must have just forgotten. Sorry about that! I'm not too good with faces. When did we meet anyway?"

"…Seven years ago."

Zack blinked in surprise. "Really?! You're from Gongaga then?"

"No."

"…Huh? But then…?"

"I met you in Midgar," Cloud replied without bothering to elaborate.

Zack looked even more confused. "But I—"

"Oi, kiddies!" a SOLDIER near the door suddenly bellowed. "Stop dawdling and get inside!"

Zack looked sufficiently cowed—an expression Cloud _definitely_ wasn't used to seeing on him—but Cloud just threw a glare at the man. Since the SOLDIER happened to know who he was, he just rolled his eyes and jerked his head, motioning for them to enter the gym.

"So!" Zack said once they were inside, "How do you think you'll do?"

"It won't be an issue," Cloud grunted. The blond had finally managed to pry his eyes away from Zack—having a conversation with a long-dead friend was starting to put him into a state of shock, he thought—and was searching the room for a familiar red trench coat. Since most of the military officers attended this exam and he knew that Puzzleman was an officer, he hoped he'd be able to catch sight of the strange, elusive man and finally find out who he was.

Unfortunately, before Cloud was able to spot Puzzleman or even continue his conversation with Zack, one of the officers stood up at the front of the room and began to speak over a loudspeaker, instructing them on what to do.

"Stand along the back walls," the man was saying. "We'll be hosting three spars at the same time, as you can see from the three sets of mats in the middle of the room. The spars will be assigned according to your last name: A-I to mat one, J-R to mat two, and S-Z to mat three. The spars will take place in five minute intervals. Come up when your name is called. The first spars are: Abnur versus Addison on mat one, Jackson versus Joahaz on mat two, and Rayner versus Rigby on mat three."

Zack turned to Cloud abruptly. "Speaking of which," he said exuberantly. "I never got your name!"

"Cloud Strife," the blond replied with a nod of his head.

Zack deflated slightly. "Ah man, that means that we won't have a chance to spar together. That's too bad; you like you're good in a fight," he moaned while eyeing Cloud's broadsword appreciatively. "That thing almost reminds me of Lieutenant General Angeal's sword!"

Cloud snorted softly. "It's modeled after the Buster Sword."

"Oh? What's that?"

Cloud paused for a moment, struck by Zack's words. Zack didn't know the name of Angeal's sword? That could only mean that he didn't know Angeal yet! Such an idea wasn't too far of a stretch, since Zack _was_ still just a cadet at this point, but Angeal had been such a central point of Zack's life for as long as Cloud had known him—which was saying something since Angeal had been _dead_—that it was decidedly odd think that they had yet to meet.

"Cloud?"

The blond shook his head to dislodge his thoughts. "Nothing, Zack. Nothing."

The teen hesitated and Cloud was once again struck with just how young his friend looked. Swallowing deeply, he looked away, unable to hold Zack's gaze. He'd been so looking forward to seeing Zack again ever since he'd gotten here. It was the one reason he had to actually stay in Shinra; after all, he'd been the closest thing to a brother that he'd ever had and Cloud's first true friend. But now that he'd actually met him, there was a cold ball of tension in Cloud's abdomen. This Zack…This was not the Zack that he'd known, not yet.

Not yet.

When Cloud's name was finally called, he left with a nod to Zack and stepped over to the third mat. His opponent was a fifteen year old boy with dark hair whose name he didn't catch. Needless to say, the boy didn't stand a chance and in no time flat Cloud had him on his back with First Tsurugi pointed at his throat.

Zack's fight, when it came around, took a little bit longer, but surprisingly not by much. Though he wasn't at the same level of ability as Cloud remembered, the basis for the powerful fighter that he would become was already there.

"Congratulations," Cloud murmured when Zack came back to stand by him.

The dark haired teen smiled brightly. "Thanks! You too," he replied. "You've got some wicked-ass skills with that sword."

"I must concur," a voice behind them murmured and Cloud twitched violently; he hadn't heard anyone approaching them!

Cloud and Zack turned around at the same time, but had two very different reactions when they found that it was Angeal Hewley who was standing behind them. Cloud's was a mixture of annoyance and curiosity while Zack's was wide-eyed shock and awe. In an instant he'd leapt up to Angeal, grabbed his hand, and begun to shake it,

"Lieutenant General Angeal!" he exclaimed. "It's an honor to meet you, sir! I'm Cadet Zachary Fair."

Angeal blinked a few times, looking as though he wasn't quite sure how to react to Zack's enthusiasm. "A…pleasure to meet you as well, Fair," he said finally. "And good job today as well."

Zack absolutely beamed. Cloud was pretty sure that he couldn't have looked happier had he been told that he'd made SOLDIER right then and there.

Slowly Angeal glanced back at Cloud. "Are you aiming for SOLDIER?" he asked.

"Yes, I am," Cloud replied warily. He wasn't frowning because of the question, but rather because it was _Angeal_ who was asking it. He knew that he'd been drawing attention to himself, but he hadn't realized that it'd been enough for one of the _Lieutenant Generals_ to have heard of him. Had Sephiroth…?

As Cloud stared thoughtfully into the distance, he suddenly became aware of just _what_ he was staring at: Puzzleman was standing on the other side of the gym, talking to a fellow SOLDIER. Cloud's mouth dropped open, unable to believe the coincidence for a moment.

"Strife?"

Cloud glanced back at Angeal. Angeal, who was a military officer, just like Puzzleman. Angeal, who, more likely than not, knew who Puzzleman was.

"Excuse me, but would you happen to know who that man is?" Cloud asked formally while gesturing toward Puzzleman. Fortunately, Puzzleman's crimson trench coat was distinct enough to easily stand out in the crowd.

Angeal glanced at him sharply. "Genesis Rhapsodos, you mean?" he murmured.

Cloud frown deepened at the name. Oh he knew who Genesis was alright. He was one of the top three SOLDIERs in Shinra, equal in ability to Sephiroth and Angeal. He was also arguably the one who had started the downward spiral that was Sephiroth's sanity.

"Genesis?" he repeated to himself. "Hmm, I think I like 'Puzzleman' better." A much more innocent name, now that he knew who he was.

Instantly Zack, who'd been surprising quiet up until then, burst out into gales of laughter. "Oh man," he moaned. "Now every time I look at Genesis, I'll see him in a superhero outfit!"

Cloud just stared, uncomprehending. "…Superhero?"

"Yeah, you know, because of the whole 'Puzzleman' thing," Zack said energetically. "It's all like, 'He fights puzzles with...puzzles! All cowards hide from the logical might of PUZZLEMAN!"

As Zack struck pose amidst dead silence from the on watchers, Cloud could practically hear corny comic superhero music playing in the background. He wasn't sure whether he should palm his face or just burst out laughing.

Eventually the humor won over.

Angeal shook his head in exasperation at the cadets' antics. "Be careful that Genesis doesn't hear you saying that," he warned.

"Eh, it's fine," Zack waved it off casually. "I'm sure that he's got a sense of humor…And besides, Cloud started it."

The blond snorted at the statement, but didn't disagree. Personally, he could care less whether Genesis knew about the 'nickname' or not; it was his fault for not identifying himself in the first place.

After another moment of staring thoughtfully at Genesis, Cloud finally turned back to Angeal. "Is there anything you need, sir?" he asked formally.

The smile Angeal replied with was surprisingly sharp. "Not at the moment," he said. "Good luck getting into SOLDIER, Strife, Fair."

"It won't be a problem for either of us."

One of Angeal's eyebrows quirked upward. "Oh? And what about the mako test?"

"That won't be a problem either," Cloud said dismissively. "Although…" A dark expression flashed across his face. "I'm not sure if I'll even let Hojo within a hundred feet of me, so I might just refuse mako treatments."

Angeal had nothing to say to that, but his contemplative expression spoke volumes.

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"You were right."

Genesis looked up, surprised. A moment later he covered his confusion with a smirk. "Of course I was. The question is, what was I right about this time?"

Angeal snorted as he closed the office door behind him. "You were right about Cloud Strife," he explained. "He's interesting. And definitely…different."

"Ah, so you finally got around to approaching him?"

"Not all of us have the time to stalk cadets," Angeal shot back.

Genesis twitched. "I'm _not_ stalking him!" he snapped. "Would you quit bringing that up? …What'd he say to you anyway that was 'interesting'? Something about a ghost?"

"Ghost?" Angeal repeated dubiously. "Not quite. He said—among other things—that he didn't want mako enhancement, which is odd because most cadets want the strength. He also displayed a hatred for Professor Hojo."

Genesis frowned curiously at Angeal's words. "That is strange," he muttered. "Is it possible that he's come in contact with Hojo in the past?"

"With Hojo it's always possible," the dark haired SOLDIER replied. "But if he had been in contact with him, then we should have seen some sign of it either through Strife himself, Hojo, or even the Turks. You know Lazard has been keeping a closer eye on Hojo lately."

"True," Genesis murmured. "I suppose we'll have to wait and see for now. Does Strife have a chance at getting into the SOLDIER program, from what you saw?"

Immediately Angeal snorted loudly. "There's no chance that he _won't_ get in. Didn't you see his spar?"

Genesis shook his head regretfully. "I was held up by Sephiroth. I didn't get there 'til more than half way through," he said.

"That's a pity. There's a few interesting ones this year. In particular there was an odd cadet who appeared to be friends with Strife. He acted a bit like a puppy though…"

"Well, they do say that the odd ones tend to group together," Genesis said with a small grin.

Angeal couldn't help but laugh. "Does that mean that Sephiroth will soon join them?" he asked. What he didn't expect was for Genesis' humor to completely drain away.

"…Maybe…" he muttered. "Maybe…"

"Genesis?"

The SOLDIER 1st shook his head back and forth and then blinked a few times, as though he'd been in a daze. "Er, nothing, I guess."

Unseen, Aerith slowly backed out of the room, a deep frown on her face.

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A/N: "_Hopefully the next one will be up sooner_" (**laughs nervously**) Yeah…Sorry about that. Stuff has come up. But I _did_ also say that updates might be sporadic. This chapter wasn't really too humorous, but I felt that the meeting between Cloud and Zack was more important.

Speaking of which, credit the superhero joke is this chapter goes entirely to Sahxyel. I laughed so hard at that review that I couldn't help but add it into the story.

Anyway, another reviewer asked if I would reveal my other penname at the end of this story. Honestly, I might. We'll have to see at the end of the story. Until then, I _will_ say that FFVII isn't the main genre I write for.

And finally, I have to give a little story-relevant rant before I go: Every single fucking time I try to write something for fun the plot bunnies mutilate my brain, hijack the story, and give it a much more complex plot line. Just _once_ I'd like to start a story and finish it the way I originally intended to instead of turning it into some deep, epic shit. _Gah_! So, anyway, this story now has a plot. Not that it didn't before; it's just got a deeper one behind it now. I'll say nothing else other than that though; all will be revealed in good time.

…Probably.

Thanks for your reviews!

[Eternal]

--On a different note, I've been considering getting a beta for this story. I've had issues with betas in the past, so I'm a bit hesitant, but I'm willing to try it to help iron out some of the mistakes in the story. Anyone interested?


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